TORONTO, 18 August — South Asian film talent from around the world will be under the spotlight again at the Second Annual Toronto South Asian Film Festival today and tomorrow. Mohit Rajhan, co-founder of the festival, hopes to showcase the flipside of the cookie-cutter musicals turned out by Bollywood, India’s massive movie machine.
“The South Asian community is growing in all different areas of the world – Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States — and because of that these filmmakers have interpretations of both where they live and the culture that they’ve embraced through their parents,” he said.
About 15 features and shorts will be presented over the two nights, many of them commenting on the mixed messages that complicate things when you live in two cultures at once. Among this year’s films are the American picture Matrimonial.com about using the Internet to help set up arranged marriages, and another film dealing with same issue called Hyderabad Blues, a US-Indian co-production, about a man returning home after 12 years in the US and questioning the tradition of arranged marriage.
Also among the screenings would be Canadian director Mitra Sen’s documentary Just A Little Red Dot. “It’s basically a schoolyard tale about a girl who goes to school one day wearing a dot on her forehead and the childhood tragedy that ensues when she’s a victim of discrimination,” Rajhan says.
There will also be a special screening of India Log, an acclaimed series out of the US, celebrating the achievements of high-profile Indians. The documentaries include those on musicians A. R. Rahman and Zakir Hussain. Last year’s festival saw the screening of three features and four documentaries, with the focus on The Wrestler by famed Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta. The film got him the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival.
The founders of the festival wish “to give a forum to South Asians to promote, develop and create cinematic endeavors from a global perspective.” The idea is to build a network of people on one platform “so that we can bring together an intelligent audience that appreciates and support exploration as seen through a camera lens,” said Rajhan. One of this year’s highlights will be the presentation of an “Image Award” for the successful presentation of a positive image of the quintessential South Asian through the cinematic media.